I had so many ideas for this month’s theme. The most ambitious of them involved taking a new roll of film out of its box and loading an old 35 mm camera to take all of this month’s photos. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to let day-to-day responsibilities overwhelm grand plans. As a consequence, I ended up using my favourite Olympus OM-D camera and my phone camera, as I usually do. In addition to taking photographs of unusual sights and situations that came up as the days of May ticked by, I found enough self-discipline to spend a couple of hours purposefully making photographs of some of my out-of-the-box ideas. Here are some of my favourites:

1. White Box / Memory Box – A few years ago I used the box our printer shipped in to make a cheap white box. I’ve used it many times since, to take the photos that accompany my reviews of Lego sets, for composed photographs and to play around with zoom burst photography. This month I opened up our youngest son’s memory box and composed an arrangement based on the colour red. Rather than post the finished memory box photo, I’ve opted to include a wider shot that shows my white box set-up.

2. Out of the Garden Box – Our vegetable garden consists of four raised bed gardening boxes that have been in place for about 25 years. Each year I am surprised by a few plants that sprout out the side of the boxes, seeking the light between the two boards that make up the sides of the boxes. I haven’t yet pulled this baby cottoneaster shrub; they have strong roots, so it’s going to be a bit of a tug-of-war!

3. Lego Out of the Box – To build anything with Lego, you first have to take the bricks out of the packing box. After that, especially if you have young kids, it seems to be an ongoing struggle to keep all the Lego bricks in their designated storage box. Here’s another take on out of the box Lego!

4. Out of the Box Art Material – Full credit to our youngest son for supplying the key ingredient for this photo. Earlier this spring he bought a new computer keyboard; he left the plastic covered wire ties that seem to come with every bit of electronics sitting on his desk. Thanks to some creative fidgeting, he soon had a twist tie profile. I noticed it a few weeks ago when I was dusting and then I got the idea of using it in a photograph. I ended up creating an “in camera” double exposure, moving the twist tie and changing the distance between my camera lens and the background paper to compose a scene that I hope suggests a conversation between two people.

5. Out of the Ordinary Mountain Experience – This month, our youngest son was invited to a birthday party in Kananaskis Country (yes, a hiking birthday party). Mr. GeoK and I figured we’d take full advantage of the need to provide transport to/from the trailhead by planning our own mountain adventure. Mr. GeoK came up with a great idea – cycle up the Highwood Pass from the winter gates that bar vehicle access from December 15th to June 15th each year. The Highwood Pass is the highest paved road in Canada. From our parking spot at the gates, our return ride was 39 km (24 miles) with total elevation gain of 720 meters (2350 feet). Of course all that elevation gain allowed for a top speed of 54 kph (34 mph). It was pretty strange to share the highway with just mountain sheep and other cyclists. I plan to publish a separate blog post covering all aspects of the ride in the next day or two.

Time to stuff the rest of my ideas back into the box and head over to A ‘lil Hoohaa to see how everyone else interpreted this month’s theme.

I like to treat this photo blogging challenge as a month-long photo assignment, which makes it pretty low stress. New participants are welcome to join the photo blogging challenge any time. Why not join us? The June theme will be posted at A ‘lil Hoohaa tomorrow.